Winter Shots - St. Joseph North Pier light - 2015

In January of 2015, I braved the cold temps and winds to get some photographs on the St. Joseph North Pier light.  This is one of my favorite places to hit up when I get the itch to day travel and take a few shots.  Lots of lines and subjects.
For this December's club meeting I need two winter shots.  Going back in my history, I might find a few.  This will be one and I have an idea for for the second.  It will be pure Michigan.
Returning to this shot.  There's a lot to like.  The ice formations are really good, lots of potential to work with.  The red of the rear light breaks up the image a bit.  The ice formation on the front light gives an interesting illusion the light is leaning, not quite straight.
The overall light is odd.  I think it has to do with the light reflecting off the snow.  Looks very pastel.  
This is a quick edit with PS to get some idea of the image out of the camera.  Yes, those are two brave souls out in front of the front light.  I'm not sure if they survived the day or not.

This needs to look a bit harder, get some contrast added.  That helps because it will also give some definition to the snow and ice.  The sky has enough definition to pass.  If I make it look really harsh, which isn't bad for my tastes, the result may not be suitable for the masses.
I worked my usual processing with PS and On One.  The product hadn't left the pastel state enough for me.  With a rare combination of left and right brain working together, I added some NIK filtering.  Played with the sliders until I got the look I was going for.

ISO 200, f/6.3, 1/640 sec, 150 mm

D90/18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

That looks like a Michigan winter day, noon .

Two T6s at the Line

As I look/review the images from the Air Races, what I look for keeps changing.  I started with numbers.  Any image with only one subject was not going to make the early cut.  Maybe in February, but not now.  
Then there is excitement.  Multiple aircraft coming at each other.  Fast.
Now I'm looking at straight focus, with prop blur.  Or if that is too much to ask, the prop perpendicular to me so it is basically hidden.
Here are two T-6s crossing downwind of the start finish pylon.
I like this shot because just everything that should be in focus is in focus.  It's tricky to pull that off.  In this case, it is shutter speed.  At 1/2000 sec the props would be frozen.  Because of the angle, it doesn't take away from the shot.

ISO 400, f/8, 1/2000 sec, 450 mm

This shot easily passes the monitor test.  All the sponsor lettering is crisp and clear.  And with the winds, the flags are doing their thing.

Williamsburg Barrel House - A Case for HDR

My interest in HDR is coming full circle.  Search my history, there are images with small touches to full blown grunge.  I'm not apologizing for any of it.
There are so many photos out there where you can tell it is HDR.  To me, now the trick is to use it as a tool to help set light levels without giving away the process.  Sort of like magic?  Analogy works for me.
Maybe the last time I shot real HDR, you know the three image merge type, was in May 2016 on a vacation week in Williamsburg, VA.  I may have 25-30 sets of all sorts of scenery.  Totally forgot about them.  Until today.
There is a plantation museum, Hope Plantation, just north of classic colonial Williamsburg.  One of the exhibits is a shed with a few barrels.  Great setup for HDR.  There is just enough light coming though the space between the logs to screw with the metering on the camera.  Not that I was any good at figuring that stuff out at the time, or now some would say, but I was kind of lucky here.
But this is the perfect setup for HDR, and my goal is to make the image look 'natural'.
I don't have the accompanying Nikon JPG, but I did process the neutral image of the three image set as I normally would for comparison.  To be fair, without HDR, I would have spent more time on the image to get the light levels right, or moved on to the next image.  The edits here were done in ACR.  Not too bad, if I say so myself.

ISO 400, f/11, 1/15 sec, 22 mm

NIKON D7200 Ver.1.00 /18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

But......  Still a little dark.  And the barrels look, well odd.

There is so much wood in this shot.  This shot is crying out to be different.  It deserves a bit more time.  And creativeness.  I have to see the wood.
There are three shots I put through Photomatix.  All are at ISO 400 and f/11.  The times are 1/15, 1/60, and 1/4.
Coming out of Photomatix, I liked the Creative and Painterly pre-sets.  They were a little on the dark side, but nothing that couldn't be adjusted.  Read the term pre-sets.  It's legal. 
This is the creative pre-set.  The Painterly had just too much 'warmth' for me.

That's pretty close to what I'd like.  Still needs a bit of sharpening or contrast, but the light levels are good.  Aside from the ceiling rafters being at a high light level, there aren't any real HDR tell tales.  We're getting closer.
To me, there is still a bit too much 'warmth' color.  I tried to cool it off a bit, but then the barrels looked like they came from the north pole.
One of the filters I tried was of the B&W variety.  This is my right brain kicking in, and I need a B&W image for club night.

I think the light levels here are really what I'm looking for.  Shifts the light a little to the right.

What if......
I bet I can neutralize the overall warmth with a little monochrome?

I overlayed the B/W shot at 50%.  (And finished up the other edit I do.)

This works.  One might say that there should be a bit more color in the wood.  I could be swayed a bit, but this to me is in the shade.  It is not supposed to be 'colorful'.  To me, the wood grain and definition is everything.  There is good balance of light inside and outside.
My standard crop cuts out more than I like, but for consistency sake I'll do it.

I can live with this one.  And a new idea to boot.  Good day.

South Carolina Alligator - In the sun

In August of 2012, I was able to take time off from work and travel with the family to South Carolina.  Interesting note that out of the six nights that the house was rented, I spent only three there.  C's father lives in the geographical area and I have friends that needed visiting.  I had a vacation within the vacation.  And a lot of extra miles on the truck.
So - wonderful family vacation.  Seemed to work out for all of us.
We met up with C's dad for a 'cruise' down a coastal river.  The river name escapes me now.  We 'chartered' a captain and boat for the afternoon.  The first mate was a wonderful dog, what a neat crew.  It was a great time.
Not only am I an ugly American, but I'm an ugly traveler as well.  I know nothing about anything outside my orbit.  So in SC, what did I expect to see on the river?  Who knows, I acted like a small child the whole time.  Every critter was new to me.  No idea what they were.  But could hardly wait to see the next one.  Line 'em up Captain.
So let's go to the top of the food chain.  Gators.
We saw a few close to shore, some on shore and some gator eyes in the water.  The eyes were fun to watch, but we weren't close enough to make it an interesting photograph.  Maybe that was good?
We drifted around a bend and saw this gator just sunning on some sand.  He moved a bit, I'm thinking that it was looking for its next meal.  At one point, the gator was stretched out and I'm guessing around six feet in length.
I'm not sure what makes a good gator picture, maybe any one you can walk away from?

ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec, 200 mm

In 2012 I was shooting with the D90.  About at that time, I was also shooting with very limited knowledge.  This image is cropped fairly aggressively.  It meets the monitor test, but won't go into the hall of fame. 
(Really, it's out here as support for reasoning to get longer lens.  Maybe Santa will see this?)

Two Sport Class Racers

I was looking at photos for prop blur.  I haven't worked too much with speed priority, and when I've tried the results were not stellar.  Something to work for next year.  But what I'm seeing is, in round numbers, that shots with 1/1000 second will get a little blur.  What I really want to avoid is a straight prop where you can read the Hamilton Propeller sticker.  And I have a few of them.  Being a rookie at this, I was just tossing the camera and lens around with ISO and aperture set, speed be damned.  But to catch the prop blur of a plane in flight, I need to be under 1/1000 and probably closer to 1/600.  Of course, I'll forget this next year.
So here are two in the Sport class.  It is cropped pretty tight, and was shot in 1.3 mode.  I did test it on the monitors - and it was OK.  The subjects remain fairly sharp.

ISO 100, f/6.3, 1/1250 sec, 480 mm

I like the diverse colors between the two airplanes.  The whites, blues, yellows and dark reds get to me in the right place.

The Jack Links Jet

I'm sure you've seen the 'Messin' with Sasquatch' commercials.  The company behind the product is Jack Links.
Follow me here.
Jack Links is the primary sponsor of the John Klatt Air Shows Demonstration program.
The Demonstration Team has two aircraft, one is traditional and one only looks traditional.  I may get to the traditional aircraft in a later post.  Clearly the most interesting aircraft is the one that looks like a barnstorming bi-plane.  The looks are where the similarities  diverge.
The Screamin' Sasquatch.
The Screamin' Sasquatch is power by two separate power plants.  There is a P&W radial engine to drive the prop.   And...  If that wasn't enough, there is a GE J-85 attached to the undercarriage for a little extra kick.  A bi-plane with 4,500 lbs of thrust.  Is that legal?
I'm guessing the original 1929 Taperwing Waco body is a bit reinforced.  Just a bit.  To see a video of flight: Screamin' Sasquatch in flight.
I have to wonder what value the prop has, other than visual and possible a speed brake.

ASA 100, f/8, 1/800 sec, 450mm

On a side note, I have a connection to the J-85 jet engine.  I don't talk about my time stationed at Reese AFB in Lubbock, TX.  Nothing wrong with the time there, but it just wasn't exciting.  Reese was a pilot training base.  I was assigned to the 64 FMS in the engine shop.  I worked supporting the T-38 Talon - which is powered by two J-85 engines.  With an afterburner attached.  Supersonic.  In the engine shop, we tore them apart and rebuilt them.  Most of the maintenance was scheduled, however being a training base there were a lot of over speeds and over temps that kept us busy.  After working on the J57s in Okinawa which powered the KC-135 and B-52s, the J-85s were quite small.  And the parts were small.  And the torque values were much different.

Pittsburgh: Monongahela Incline

One of the first engineering marvels I have early memories of is the Mon Incline.  My grandparents had a residence on Mount Washington then - overlooking the Monongahela River.  As a kid, I could watch the tugs pushing barges full of coal up and down the river all day.  
Coming from the east, going to Mount Washington means crossing the Liberty bridge and up PJ McArdle roadway.  The road climbs the two hundred feet from the bridge to the top of the cliff in .8 miles.  That comes out to close to a 4% grade.
Crossing McArdle roadway about halfway up is the Mon incline.  The incline itself travels over 360 feet up the hill from the south side to Grandview Avenue.  The incline was built in 1870 to carry steelworkers to their homes on top of the hill.  There were many inclines in Pittsburgh and now only two remain, the Mon and the Duquesne.
So last Saturday I was driving up McArdle Road, like I have in the past so many times, the sun caught the autumn leaves leaving a tunnel of gold around the incline rail.  I was thinking this was the shot of the day.  
There is no parking along the road, so a half mile walk down and half mile walk back up was in order.  No problem there.
Now that the logistics part is over, setting up for the picture is next.  I though the best shot would be shooting from downhill going uphill.  This was due to sun position.  In reality, that didn't work out so well.  The best shot by far was shooting from uphill - looking downhill.  I'll have to deal with the sun issues later.
I shot this with the D500, still testing.  And as such, I configured the camera to save the RAW file to the primary card and a JPG to the secondary card.  So I have a JPG for comparison.  That usually doesn't happen.
A side note, this is why I shoot RAW and process my own shots.
To be fair, the JPG settings I used are very base and bland.  As a general rule, I just don't do JPG.  The camera will do 'better' if configured for vivid colors and in camera HDR.

This shot has so much potential, but needs a lot of 'help' work.
Clearly the sky is blown.  After that, there are some distractions.  I'm not sure about the 35 MPH sign - because it belongs.  Also the street lamp is an eye catcher.  Again, it belongs, but.....  Down the road, there is an orange detour sign that doesn't belong.  That's easy removal.  There's also a sign on the protective fence that could be removed.
In the end, I decided if the removal was clean that all these items needed to go.  The subject is the incline car and the gold leaves.  I also like the stained concrete on the right.  The correct light on the concrete could really help.  Other than those subjects, the rest needed to go.
As to the sky, I wanted to keep it all Pittsburgh.  I have plenty of shots with sky.  So, it will be ethical to 'correct' this Pittsburgh sky with another Pittsburgh sky from the same area on the same day.  Right?
All the object removals went fine, even the big 35 MPH sign.  Very happy with that.
To mask out the sky, I used On One.

The process in On One was less than ten minutes, where if I had used PS, it would have been considerably longer.
When I added the Pittsburgh sky, I still needed to work on the overall light levels.  For that I used Photomatix.  I wasn't going for a HDR look, just wanted to bring up the shadow light and colors a bit without looking over saturated.  I used the Photographic filter.
This is the final image.

ISO 100, f/6.3, 1/100 sec, 35 mm

D500/18-200 f/3.5-5.6

The sky part wasn't a slam dunk.  I had to lighten it a bit.  The mask work on the car was a bit tedious, but finally got it to a point where I liked it.  The reflection of the sky in the car windows was interesting.
Although I had to work to get in a spot to take this image, and had to work it a bit in post processing - I was extremely lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

You can take the boy out of Pittsburgh.......

Back from spending a few days in SW Pennsylvania.  There was a certain amount of work to be done at the family house but once the tasks were completed I could spend a few days in Pittsburgh.
Despite the fact I'm from that area, I have no real good pictures of town.  The weather didn't entirely cooperate, but it could have been worse.  Friday's rain was a stopper, but Saturday's cold I could deal with.
There is a very nice overlook that face north looking over the Monongahela River.  That was the target for the day, as well as paying a visit to the Tree of Life Synagogue Memorial in Squirrel Hill.
Saturday was sunny, with passing clouds and cold.  Pittsburgh windy cold.  
My sister, who has many of my photos framed and displayed in her home has no Pittsburgh images from me.  That has to change.
I know there are two 'keepers' from the weekend.  There will be some form of skyline and there is one incline photo.  (That will be posted soon.)
This photo is a panorama.  The finished photo is 35x15 inches.  There are 21 images (portrait) there were blended into this one.  What is shown is the center, there is more on each side, but it didn't format well for display.  For single shot skylines, there isn't as much 'information' in the image, but there also isn't as much panorama distortion.  In the end, it's all about learning.
Side story:  While I was shooting the panorama photographs, there was a couple next to me that said their phone camera was inadequate next to what I was doing and my equipment.  I replied, just depends on what you want.

Panorama 21 Images (Portrait)

I have four sets of skyline panoramas.  This is the most centered one.  There are no huge shadows from the clouds.  And I have all winter to play.  I'm sure there will be more later.

Rio Grande Trestle - Creative

This is a re-visit of a shot I put together after the 2017 Detroit model Railroad Club outing.  That shot can be found here.
I like this part of the track layout.  The detail in the trestle is great.
So this afternoon I was looking for a B&W image to display at the FLCC next club meeting and I started tinkering with this one.  It started as B&W, but then I found more effects with NIK - and than a canvas background.    I had to quit and leave some creative juices for next time.  I don't get hit too often.  

This creative stuff will start getting out of hand.  What's next, the Painted Duck?

Patriots Inside Loop

Of all the air show maneuvers, the one that appeals to me the most is the inside loop.  Just plain graceful.  For one aircraft, I bet is is one of the easiest maneuvers to do.  Easy being relative.  In a group formation, I'd think it is more difficult in that then aerodynamics are, again, easy but the concentration has to be very intense.  Enough of my guessing.
For photography reasons, the trailing smoke is great.  If I was to teach a class on the 'telling a story' aspect of photography, I'd use photographs like this.  The story is easy to follow.
This is also a photograph where less is more.  I did very little post processing on this.  I let PS handle the lighting levels.  I usually add some sharpening at the end in my workflow, but that didn't work here.  Good out of the box.  And there were no annoying objects to remove.

ISO 800, f/6.3, 1/3200 sec, 450 mm

This shot is in the DX mode, full sensor.  This is at the end of the lens reach.  I am really happy with the clarity.  The focus holds up.  Have I said before that lens is pretty awesome?

Great Egret in the Trees

A lot of the time I spend driving around the Refuge, I miss the obvious.  Usually I'm looking up in the air for birds in flight - or looking down to the ground looking for birds on the ground or swimming.  I will miss a photograph like this, where an interesting subject is close to eye level.  But miss this one, I did not.
I like this shot, a lot.  It has the greens, it has the bird and it has the wood.  The wood really speaks to me,  Wood can do so much if presented right.  The effects of sharpening and contrast really bring out some character.  Of course, the trick is to not overdo it.  
In a lot of the Refuge, the greens and yellows are good for me.  Behind the bird, it has something not green which really speaks to me.    Sort of fall-ish.  
And the bird.  It has to be there.  In this case, I don't mind it not being the center of the subject.  Sure, it draws your eye.  But to me, it doesn't keep it.  The bird is not large enough to take over the scene.  My eye wanders.  And I'm OK with that.

ISO 800, f/8, 1/1250 sec, 600 mm

Next year, I'll work not not being so excited to get a nature picture that I'll see more of the obvious.

Patriot's Jet Team

One of the performers at the Air Races was the Patriot's Jet Team.  I thought  the only game in town Were the Air Force Thunderbirds and the Navy Blue Angles.  

This jet team is not supported by your tax dollars.  This is a private venture.

This was also a very good show.  I've posted some photos before, and there will probably be some after this one. 

I really enjoyed the jet show.  Incredibly fast.  It's true that the jets are much easier to photograph compared to the prop driven aircraft.  The challenge can be trying to catch opposing aircraft with a closing speed of over 900 MPH.  And for me, that was a fun challenge.

As for the performance, I liked all parts.  From the one ship acrobatics to the formation flying, all of it is good.  

All of the individual pilots are ex-Thunderbird or ex-Blue Angles.  The aircraft are the Czech built Aero L-39 Albatros.  Coincidentally or not, many of the jet racers used this same aircraft.  From the chatter in the stands, the aircraft is easy to fly, very responsive and relatively cost efficient to operate.  The jet is used by other demonstration teams such as the Breitling jet Team (France) and the Black Diamond Jet Team (US).

ISO 800, f/6.3, 1/8000 sec, 232 mm

These shots were a lot of fun to catch.  Next year, Thunderbirds.

Four Cormorants on a Tree

Before this year, I never knew what a Cormorant was - or even that they existed.  Now I know.  There are many in residence at the Shiawassee Nature Refuge, from flying to swimming to perching on a tree.
I've seen many of them flying.  Small, fast.  Maybe next year I'll catch one in flight.  I'll be ready for them.  But for this year, I have one in the process of transitioning from swimming to flight here.  
I did catch these four just sitting on a tree in a pond.
I like the green, yellows, and the orange on the bills.

ISO 400, f/8, 1/400 sec, 600 mm

This was taken with the D7200/70-300 lens, 1.5x crop.  It won't enlarge very well.  This is as much as I can crop it and it still look good on the monitors.  The argument for a 500 mm lens.  
We'll see how that fits in for next year's budget meeting.  Ha.

Grand Haven Light - Looking Inland

It's been a few years since I've been to the Grand Haven Lighthouse.  And wow, there have been some changes.  Most notably a lot of the old iron was removed and the jetty was resurfaced.  As to the old iron, this was a structure connecting the lighthouse and the back light.  It was eye-sore beautiful.  The resurfaced jetty or walkway from shore was just great.  Sure, I like worn structures but this new look was great.
During my visit, there wasn't much action going on.  No waves.  Lots of people getting a nice autumn walk in.  In a few weeks, this area won't be as pleasant.  Too bad it's so far away, at some point I'll want wave action!
I usually don't like to have people in my photographs.  Today was a bit different in that there were people fishing and they looked to be part of the scenery.  To me they are interesting, not eye distracting.
In the original image, there were two couples at the base of the light that I need to remove.  If I was going to leave people in the shot, why remove them?  Well, I always like a good challenge.  And they were also catching my eye.  One person had on a lime green coat that just didn't look right against the red light.  Off to the side, OK.  Not so much where they were.
I would have liked more color in the trees and I really thought this time of year the colors would have exploded.  But they are as they are.
This photo, from concept to post processing was an interesting journey.  On site, there was sun at my back, there was some color in the trees and there was a great sky/cloud pattern.  What's not to like?  The dynamic contrast of my eye exceeded that of the camera.  The sun shining on the red light and the white objects just off the beach were pretty much blown.  The fix is exposure compensation.  For this image, I dialed in a -1 or under-exposed by one stop.  That gives the original image a very dark look.

This definitely was not what I saw that afternoon.  And this is why we shoot RAW.  Recovering from a underexposed shot like this is not much of a challenge.  As long as there is color information on a pixel, the image can be processed.  When in doubt, shoot dark.
The challenge was I did not want a universal sunlight effect.  The sky/clouds still needs to be somewhat dark.  Additional sunlight on the red light would be too much.  Just wanted to highlight the trees, and if there was some golden color, get it to come out.
For targeted work like this, I use On One.  All the universal work and object removal was done with Photoshop.
I joke with my photo club that I don't like to take more than five minutes on any shot.  This was fun.  I worked on it for over two days, on and off.  Not that the final image is multiple hours of work, but I did bits and pieces - deleted and started over again and did bits and pieces and deleted and...  you get the idea.
Once I had everything worked out, start to finish was probably ten minutes.  One of the time contributors was an error on my part.  This was taken with the D500 on the first day.  I missed the setting to compress (lossless) the RAW file.  This file is huge and it does add some time for each process.  Quoting HJS, "DOH!"

ISO 100, f/6.3, 1/800 sec, 36 mm (EC -1)

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

That's a lot closer to what I saw.  The trick is to not overdo the highlights.  You can make it look very fake, very quickly.  Which I did a few times.

B25 - Semper Fi

The Commemorative Air Force is an organization that works to restore/fly vintage aircraft at air shows.  There are a number of chapters across the US and Canada.  At the Air Races, the CAF had a few aircraft perform at the show.
One of the aircraft from the CAF was the B25 Mitchell bomber.  I had never seen one, up close, before.  History.
I have a lot of interesting photos of the aircraft in various phases of flight.  But what's really interesting to me about this, is I am essentially eye level with the flight deck.  Have I said, our seats were just plain awesome?
I'm guessing based on cruise information I could find, this pass was around 220 MPH.

ISO 400, f/8, 1/2000 sec, 600 mm

NIKON D7200 Ver.1.04/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

The fact that I froze the props isn't telling here.  Did I mention, our seats were just awesome to be able to get this view?

What it takes............

I have fun sharing my photos.  I have fun taking the shots.  I have fun with the software.  I have fun with the 'pressure' to get a good shot.  I have fun with the mental exercises to get the good shot.  It is all fun.
When you think of what the photographers of years past had to do to get a good shot.  I have fun because out of hundreds of shots, I get two or three and I think it is a good day.  I have memory cards that will hold thousands of images.  All of it still costs $$$s, but for me it is paid for.   All  the cost is up front.  That's not always how it used to be.
Photographers back in the day had to be good.  Or broke.  No one could have the miss to hit ratio that I have and survive to tell about it.  In golf terms, I'm a hack.
That's OK.  As long as the ratio gets better, I'm doing OK.  When I was playing golf, if I had one or two memorable shots a round, I was happy.  In the photography game it a bit different.  Sure, looking for the one 'money' shot is good but I look at it as a two track adventure.  The first track is the 'artsy' one.  Do I have the 'eye'?  Do I have the sense of story telling with one image?  The second track is technical.  Is it sharp?  Is it in focus?  is that a bird, or a dust spot?
When both tracks meet, that's the one.
Yesterday I was testing the D500.  Looking at the two tracks, the story just wasn't there.  The story was never going to be there.  Weather was nice.  No real wave action.  Unless someone fell off the pier, nothing interesting.  But I can work on the technical stuff.  Sunlight off the white tower presents some pixel washout, unless you can work the camera, ie exposure compensation.  Work it.  While not a total loss, I wasn't expecting much more.
A lot of time when I go out, it is just working the settings.  Shooting (photographing) the Sea Gulls.  So when the time is right, I'll be ready to forget everything I've learned.
When I went to the Air Races, the story was in front of me.  No excuses on that end.  Just don't screw up the technical stuff.
But even when the story is in front of you, not every shot is a winner.  I took probably close to 5k shots in the four days.  In the end, I was looking for about 25 per day that were keepers.  There were plenty of multiple shot sequences that produces good shots, but they count only as one.
In the case of the Air Races, it was all fun, even when this happens.

No saving this one.  When you think about it, so many things had to go right.  The story was there.  It is tough for me to tell the distance, but let's call it .2 mile.  Let's say each aircraft is traveling at 500 mph.  Closing speed, round numbers 1,000 MPH.  I'm .2 miles away, trying to catch a scene at 1,000 MPH where I can only guess the money shot will be?  In this shot, I only missed by a couple of feet. 
Out of the 5k shot, let's say 4k were action.  There were many that were near "hits".  But you keep shooting away.  And then you get something like this.

ISO 400, f/8, 1/4000 sec, 450 mm

NIKON D7200 Ver.1.04/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

Aesthetically you either like it or not.  But technically, it is there.  And I definitely had fun.

It's Sunny Somewhere (The D500 initial outing)

I've been home bound the past two weekends, for the real job .  This weekend, the weatherperson responded to my cabin fever by providing a nor'easter on the east coast drenching all my favorite photo haunts.  And it's pretty much peak color weekend.  Thanks Weatherperson.
When life deals you lemons, you change the scenery.  Took me 450 miles, but I found the Michigan sun.
The D500 arrived Friday.  It was not going to stay in the house for very long.  At the very least, I had to see if the focus worked, right?  The QXD card is still in the mail so I had to use an 'old' SD card.  It was landscape shooting, set to 3 PFS.  I was sure there would be no buffer issues.
My favorite area to photograph is east of here, and not really good today.  So I headed west to Benton Harbor and the light at St. Joe's.
Prior to shooting, things I like about the D500.  Uses the same battery as my D7200.  The menus are basically the same, or similar enough I can use it today.  (The book is on the way as well.)  Things I don't like.  The USB connection is different.  (Would have been nice if they were the same.)  Also the question of a remote shutter release.  The D7200 unit is $25.  The D500's - substantially more.  Change is good I tell myself.
So I ran away from the rain today to view a few lighthouses, or lights on the western side of the state.  My first stop was the light on the northern pier of St. Joseph's.
I have many photos of the area in the winter, such as this one from 2015 - st-joseph-light-january-2015 and this one with some nice wave action st-joes-light-and-waves.
Today, upper 40s and a light wind.  I could walk all the way out to the front light.

ISO 100, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

First test passed.  It works in sunlight with no pressure.

Through the Cut

One of the curses I find about returning to a location to photograph subjects, is I have a number of shots already lined up in my head.  And I will get that photograph at any cost.  And this is one set-up that I had in mind.
I wanted to get the length of a train measured by some landscape.  And that was all I saw.
Too bad.
I didn't notice any of the imperfections until I finished the stack process.  Most of the source photos are out of focus to begin with and I didn't see this coming.

In case it doesn't show up. but the right quarter of the image has some green thing that is too close to the lens and is out of focus.  Badly.  There are a few other 'imperfections' that need some tending to as well.  Most notably, there are what look to be green colored bag ties on the left and right trying to blend into the trees.  Easy fixes, but the green focus mess on the right is a problem.
I tried to delete the trees, clone over the trees and even replace the trees.  Note for next time, just make sure the shot is clear of this sort of thing.  Probably would have been a lot easier and less time consuming.
But like the bull headed idea to get this shot, I will do something reasonable with it to save it.
The first thing to do was figure out how much of the right I could save.  There is a slight out of focus area that if cleaned up would get some breathing room.  Some creative cropping may do the rest.

ISO 100, f/6.3, 1.6 sec, 50 mm

14 shot focus stack

But the story can't end here.  While this might be an OK shot, it still isn't doing it for me.  The club will go back to the DMRRC in a few months and I'll come up with something else.  What I did learn this year, is a prime lens is a must.  I have to keep on that track.  One of the issues is that minimum focus is a foot.  Doesn't sound like much. but when working in tight quarters, every inch counts.  Enough about next time.
Still trying to save this one.
I'd like to do something sketchy.  I came up with this, and just a hint of color.

The 6187 in the keystone had to stay sharp, after that everything else was negotiable.  Looks more sketchy as a screen saver on my monitors.

Great Egret and a pair of Ducks

One of the many 'new' missions for next year will be Ducks at the Refuge.  The colors and patterns really catch my interest.  I clearly don't know enough about Ducks, why the colors and patters are the way they are.  I need to know.
One of the other odd things I've noticed, which I can only describe as odd is the head position against the body when the head is turned.  Doesn't look right.  In many paintings or other illustrations I've see this but I assumed the oddity was a limitation of the artist.  How wrong I was.
And the Great Egret.  Well, it's white.  Yellow eye.  Orange-yellowish beak.  Black legs.  Sure in it's own way it is an interesting bird.  I'll see them next year too.

ISO 400, f/8, 1/800 sec, 350 mm

This was a fun image for me.  On all my visits to the refuge, I never really saw two different species that close together.  I'm not sure of the territorial interests of the birds, may I just never noticed it.  So right off the start, I liked this one.  The camera was a bit 'fooled' by the light off the water, the original image is quite dark.  I'm not happy with the water properties.  I rarely shot with a polarizer on my visits.  Usually the sky was crappy enough on those days so the water wasn't a concern.  Clearly on this day a polarizer might have helped.
In the upper right hand corner, there was a water plant of some sort that was a bit distracting.  I removed with the new content aware tool in PS.  That is an awesome upgrade added feature.

Airshow/EOY Thoughts and the Stihl Sport Racer

It's been just over a month since the Air Races.  Truth be known, I'm just about out of photographs that I think are interesting.  There are still many worth commenting on, such as this one of the #30 Stihl Sport Class Racer.
The Sport Class definition:  Sport aircraft shall be any kit or amateur built aircraft that is certificated by the FAA and has completed a phase 1 flight test. Aircraft are to be powered by an internal combustion engine or engines totaling no more than 1000 cu in. and capable of a 200 MPH minimum qualification lap speed.  Stolen from here http://www.sportclass.com/.
The best of the Sport Class at the races moves over 380 MPH.  Relatively speaking, the air frames are small.  Let's see, on the list of elements to make photography interesting:  Small target, check.  Rapid movement, check.  Shutter speed limitation to catch prop blur, check.  And finally, rookie behind the lens, check.  Maybe the taxi photograph was the environment with the highest probability of a good shot?
Hold that thought.
Back to the photo.  It should be noted I liked this particular aircraft from the start.  It's orange.  And I am that shallow.  It's my first year at the races, a break here is required.  Anyway, Stihl is the primary sponsor and for that many thanks should be given.  Rumor has it, chain saws were given away on award night.  I can't make this stuff up.
As mentioned, this is on the taxi way.  The goal was to capture the propeller blur.  In the first pass, that goal was achieved.  And with the passage of time, this one shot represents to me why I need to go back next year.

ISO 100, f/20, 1/80 sec, 600 mm

All things considered, not a bad shot.  At the 600 mm focal length, general rules are the the minimum speed should be 1/600 second.  I had to slow the speed for the propeller blur.  The blur at 1/80 is right where I want it.  To get the speed that low on a sunny day, the ISO was as low as it would go and I had to go to f/20 aperture setting.  I usually like to shoot f/8 to f/11.  Optically best for the lens.  To get the 600 mm reach, I needed to shrink my sensor.  The D7200 has two sensor options.  The two sizes are DX format (23.5 x 15.6 mm) and 1.3x crop of DX (18.8 x 12.5 mm).  The DX format has a image size of 24.1 megapixels.  The 1.3x crop of DX achieves an image size of approximately 15.4 megapixels.  So what does all this mean?  It's all about the angles through the lens.  The lens I was using was built for a full frame sensor.  Because the sensor in the D7200 is smaller than a full frame, it has a different angle through the lens that effectively gives an extra 50% reach for the image.  Make the sensor even smaller, the angle changes even more, and I get to 600 mm out of a 300 mm lens.  But there is a penalty to pay.  A smaller picture.
When shooting nature subjects, the restrictions aren't as great.  For the most part - fast is good.  Light control - or contrast control is more important.  In other words, prepping for the air races by photographing birds didn't help much.  Well, for the jets it did - but to catch the prop driven aircraft I need a new tactic.
The simple answer is a neutral density filter.  I have a variable filter, but for good shots I need a better set up.  Good ND filters are expensive, so I need to figure out one or two filters.  Either way, I have to get better and more knowledgeable about using these filters.
The not so simple answer is what changes in equipment there might be in the future.  New camera, new lens?
The real answer - and the answer to most of the unfinished points raised here is I'm an amateur photographer.  To get to the next level is expensive, $4k at least.  I could upgrade  a lot cheaper, but that's not me.  But If I'm going to swim in the small pool I'm going to do it right.
And so the planning begins.......

Across the Yard

As mentioned in previous posts, this year's photo shoot at the Detroit Model Railroad Club, for me, was successful.  Many of the shots turned out like this one, that is the photo is sharp and the likability of the subject is up to the viewer.
This year, I was trying for different areas on the layout.  I have some older shots of this area, but not with this setup of trains.  In the original shot, the background wall didn't do me any favors.  The focus stacking played some odd tricks with the flat blue color.  Lately I've been getting a bit more aggressive with cropping, and that allowed me to do the same here.
This is the shot coming out of the stack process.

ISO 100, f/6.3, 1.6 sec, 50 mm

16 Shot Photo Stack

All that stuff in the upper right looks bad.  That boys and girls is what a dirty sensor photo looks like.  In this case, it is not.
At first, I tried to clone it out to keep some originality.  And in the end, it looked worse.
Next I tried sky replacement.  I spent quite a bit of time erasing the background, more time than I like on any photograph.  I wound up erasing more and more of the background.  With what I think the format that the club likes, this is what I finished up with.

To me there's not enough to distract, but if I was to re-edit I'd lighten the blue a bit.  Other than that, the photo is OK.  Just OK.
But, since I've been cropping to a size that is more monitor friendly I might be able to get that mess totally out of there.

Actually, this looks so much better to me.  No background, all subject scenery.
I'm not sure why I'm not totally happy with this shot.  On my screen saver, it is sharp.  All the numbers are clearly readable.  All the tracks are in focus.  Still not happy.  I think, it is because it looks indoors?  The light ain't right.
I could play with the light levels, or......  I like what B&W or monochrome effects did for the F15 shot.  (Here)  After all, this is a railroad shot.  Looks way too clean.
This is what I finished with.

Now this looks a little more like a railroad yard shot to me, or what I think it would look like.  I need to expand my horizons more.

Because I was Inverted.....

One of the best movie scenes ever comes from the movie Top Gun.  With a rumor of Top Gun II, I'll have to say one of the best scenes ever comes from the movie, the original Top Gun.

So the saying 'Because I was Inverted" was all over Reno.  Tee shirts, mugs and probably one piece baby outfits were outfitted with this.
The air racers never inverted, but the show performers would often fly with their gear above the cockpit.  And I guess since the 'original' Top Gun film, no airshow is complete without the reenactment of the maneuver.

ISO 400, f/8, 1/2500 sec, 450 mm

Photographically speaking, again, I could shave some speed in favor of ISO on this day.  From many of the shots, the morning and early afternoon sky is virtually cloudless.  In many shots, I was using ISO 800 and getting crazy speeds.  I think I could get away with 200 ISO on sunny days and 400 ISO whenever a cloud gets lost and shows up over the field.  (I put this in so when I read this a year from now I can read it and still forget it before the next show.)  I think if I need a speed bump with those settings, I can go f/11 or so.  It doesn't show up much here, but when looking very close the image noise shows up.  Some post processing cleanup helps, but a lower ISO would go a long way.